GREEN BAY, Wis. — Ty Montgomery whiffed the first time, and Jake Ryan ran past him for what would have been a sack. The next time, Montgomery blocked the blitzing linebacker just fine in the one-on-one blocking drill.

But for the Green Bay Packers‘ would-be starting running back, he knows there are no do-overs in a real game, and a mistake like the one he made in Saturday’s first full-pads practice of training camp could turn into a hard hit on quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

As much as anything, pass protection will determine who plays the most snaps among the young and inexperienced running backs.

“That’s why I’m trying to get as many reps as I can,” said Montgomery, the former receiver who didn’t get the benefit of any blitz pickup drills last summer before his midseason position switch. “I’m glad Jake did what he did because I learned from my mistake. You can see I didn’t do it again and I got the win. “

Ty Montgomery will get a chance to run the ball, but protecting the quarterback might be an even more critical part of his job. Jim Matthews/USA Today Network

If you believe coach Mike McCarthy, he wants to run the ball this year. Sure, he’s said it year after year, and most times the numbers are still heavily skewed toward the passing game, but there he was again this week making his claim.

“I’ll just say this, and I’m not joking: Running the football is A-Number 1 important in offensive football,” McCarthy said.

“Now, if we want to go back and evaluate last year, we had a segment of our season where we didn’t have a running back on our squad that played running back in training camp. So you have things that you go…